Doctor Gilmore
by A Different Kind Of Yellow
Summary: Crossover between Dr Who S04 & Gimore Girls S03. Lorelai and Rory are on their trip around Europe when they accidentally find themselves in the Tardis looking for coffee. A mysterious Doctor gives them an optional trip of a lifetime- past and/or future?
1. Chapter 1

Crossover of Gilmore Girls (end of season 3) and Doctor Who (10th Doctor, end of season 4).

I haven't seen season 4 of GG, so this is what I think Lorelai and Rory would get up to in Europe, or something close to it. This story crosses over with the end of the 4th season of Dr Who, after he has left Rose and left Donna.  
I do not own any characters from Doctor Who or Gilmore Girls, and I don't own Bill Bailey either. I don't know if he played the Edinburgh Fringe in 2003, it's just a made up performance. I do not own the Edinburgh Fringe Festival either or any rights that go with it.

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**Dr Gilmore** _(title pending)_

Chapter One

" If we see one more cathedral, Rory, I think I'm going to cry." Lorelai and Rory Gilmore were on their trip throughout Europe as backpackers. When they landed in London, they had thought that they would have more time to visit each and every country that they wanted to. But several of Rory's persuits led them elsewhere.  
Cathedrals, places where famous writers and painters once lived, places mentioned in books and famous sights. Lorelai had had enough. She had wanted to have some fun on this trip as well as giving her daughter plenty of time to see all her historical relics.

"Come on mum, there's so much history there! Just imagine the times in which these buildings were made"  
Rory insisted.

" I don't think you understand me sweetie, mummy is bored." Lorelai told her daughter.

" Fine. That's enough then. I've seen all I wanted to. It's a shame to miss out on Santiago as well, I've heard it's really beautiful."

" You're kidding, right?"

" No, I...-" Rory saw the look on her mum? face. "- I'm finished, mum, really. Whatever we miss now, we can do next time."

" Next time?"

" Yes, in a few years, I'd like to come back and do the non-tourist routes. And hopefully be fluent in a few languages. It might end up being a project of mine, for later research."

"Oh yes, when you're a foreign journalist. Okay, well, can we do something fun now?"

" What did you have in mind?"

"Can we go back to an english-speaking country? As much as I love all the men swanning over me here, I'd love to be able to understand what they say."

" Our flight leaves from London Heathrow in two weeks. I think we might have time."

" I think that's enough time to fit five small countries in, don't you?"

" The United Kingdom and Ireland? There's a lot there." Rory frowned. "You knew that was on my list all along, mum."

" I also remember that you're at the right age for drinking here. We are both single girls, we could go clubbing, British style."

Rory rolled her eyes. " I don't think they do it much differently to us. But if you want to, we can try it. But can we leave some time to see some of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? That's known worldwide."

Her mum looked at her curiously. "Okay, fine, maybe not known in Stars Hollow or Hartford, but I saw a flyer for it when we visited Harvard that time."

" What is a Fringe Festival then?"

" A mix of music, dance, plays, prose, poetry, mime... all sorts. There are shows and things like that you'd have to pay for, but I've heard the street talent is the best. They give you previews of all sorts of shows happening, and that way you can see what you want to see before you pay for it."

"Rory, I know what a preview is. So how long do you want to leave for us to visit your festival?"

" Well, it finishes on the 22nd, which would give us five days to work our way back down to London."

" Then it's settled. All we need to do now is find an internet cafe here to book our accommodation ahead of time. I hear Edinburgh gets booked up really quickly around festival time."

"Fine. Let's go."

* * *

Rory and Lorelai found an internet cafe quite easily, as there was one right beside the tourist information where they were in Amsterdam.

" Are you sure you don't want to live in Amsterdam for ever, mum?"

"And learn Dutch? Give me English any day!"

" Okay, you made your point. Let? book some accommodation and find a way to get to Edinburgh."

" Do you want to skip England entirely or are we stopping on the way? I'm all for a road trip. You know me."

" According to this website..." Rory stated, scrolling down a page, "... the train would be much quicker than driving. Sorry, mum. It says here that the train takes four and a half hours from London straight up to Edinburgh.  
How about we see some of the festival, we don't have to see it all, and then we can make our way up or down as we want at the time. There's this comedian I? like to see. It's advertised here that he's playing at the festival and there's still tickets left."

" Whats he called then?"

" Bill Bailey. He's a regular on this British show I've watched online called Nevermind the Buzzcocks. He's very funny. To me, anyway."

" Book two tickets for him then, I trust your judgement, obi wan."

" Sure thing. Since when were we back to Star Wars quotes?" Rory asked her mother.

* * *

After a quick visit to the cafe, Rory had booked them into a backpackers in Edinburgh starting two nights from now,  
two tickets for Bill Bailey, and some cheap train tickets up to Edinburgh from London for the next morning after they arrived in London. They had one more night in the hostel they were in and then they were off to England.

The flight to London didnt take so long, as it was really only over one stretch of water. What they found on the other end however, was that they had lost an hour.

" That always feels strange." Remarked Rory.

" That? true. Remember when I was half in Portugal and half in Spain. I was in two places at once. Said to be impossible, but not for Lorelai Gilmore!" Lorelai praised herself.

" No more time changes now until we get off that plane in Boston. Are you okay with me visiting Dad when we get back?"

" I will have had you all summer. Three days is alright for me. Although, I beg of you, call up your grandma and grandpa before I get home, and tell them how the trip was. Otherwise they will be bombarding me with questions."

" Fine. But they?ll probably manage to corner you anyway."

" Don't remind me."

* * *

The Doctor was getting lonely. Rose was now in a different, unattainable world with his other self. Donna was now back to her old self, and he could never see her again. The Doctor Donna combination worked out worse for her than he had imagined, and it had been destroying her. The Doctor could not let that happen, and in turn, he had to let her go. All his past companions and friends made from the past were now gone. Jack and Martha in Torchwood were still contactable, but it wouldn't be the same.

He needed to go back. Back before he asked Rose Tyler to join him on his adventures. Of course he would remember, but he needed to find something in the past that was comforting to him. What had he done before he met Rose? He had bounced from planet to planet, occassionally coming back to Earth to refuel the Tardis. For some reason, the Tardis only refueled completely when near the rift.

He needed some laughter. He hadn't laughed in so long. He needed some good old British comedy. _Who was now famous but tickets were so hard to get... There was the Little Britain sketch show, they started a while bag but didn't get fame until much later... no, he thought, too stupid. Ah Ha! An idea! Bill Bailey! He was good. He still is!  
_But tickets were so hard to come by, and his blue box would no longer fit on empty seats, as there were none!

He quickly found out that Bill Bailey played the Edinburgh Fringe in 2003 for just 12 British pounds a ticket. Nice and cheap, especially for how famous good old Bill Bailey was to become. He booked tickets for the second night he was playing. First and last nights were always too loud. The second night was quieter as he remembered. He would park the tardis a little away from the theatre. It would be safe there.

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Please R & R...


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you very much to my one reviewer - Harlequin Shadow. This chapter is for you. Enjoy...

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**Chapter Two**

Rory and Lorelai reached Edinburgh after a tiresome train journey up north from London. The scenery had been a bit dull but of everything, the two young women were surprised at how flat England was, and how it only started to get more rises once they? travelled closer to Edinburgh. Edinburgh was everything they? thought it would be and more - cold, wet and a lot of historic buildings. The train station was vast in itself, and once they had found their bearings and a map of the city, they were on their way to find the hostel.

The Bill Bailey gig was the next night, leaving a day of rest and exploration for tomorrow. Rory had booked them into a double room, but since it was the festival, most rooms has been double booked by accident, and they ended up in a room with four strangers. They were given bunk beds and a discounted rate than what they had booked online.

" Keep our bags under the bottom bunk. Which one do you want, top or bottom?" Rory asked her mother.

" Preferably the top. But if I fall off, you have to catch me, alright?"

" Sure thing, mum, but with these wooden edges, I'm sure you'll be fine."

" Okay, well, night night little one."

" I'm not so little any more, mum, I'm eighteen remember."

" Yup. I remember every little detail. Just not so much when I've only been able to find de-caffeinated coffee."

" Well, tomorrow, we will find a starbucks. I'm sure we passed one coming here."

" And you didn't tell me?"

" Mum, you were complaining about the weight of your bag. We could have gotten a taxi, you know."

" We're backpackers. No matter what my mother tried to do, we are not going to even start living in luxury."

" Fine. But stop complaining about the coffee. First thing tomorrow!"

* * *

While the girls slept soundly in their room full of strangers, another tourist was arriving in Edinburgh, although in a different form of transportation than a boring old, stuffy train. And the journey was a lot more exciting. The Doctor had been thrown about in the craft, as usual, therefore no smooth ride to Edinburgh.

The Doctor landed the Tardis around the corner from Colburn Street, just off the Royal Mile. Here, it fit in with the weird and wonderful things that had been set up around this particular street. There were clowns, singers, dancers,  
movers and shakers alike. The tardis fit in like, well, it looked exactly like the old phone box that sits all year round in Glasgow? Buchanan Street, the city just to the west of this one. That was the great thing about Scotland, abnormal fits in here, as the Scots are a fairly friendly bunch. But, the Doctor reminded himself, remember never to accept a Glasgow kiss.

What he really needed to find now on this cold, wet night was a nice cup of hot, warm tea. And he knew of a place right around the corner which he could get it. A nice cup of Scottish Blend would give him the energy and caffeine he needed.  
none of this stupid decaffeinated stuff that is so popular in the rest of Europe. The Doctor wrapped himself up in a large warm coat found in the back of his wardrobe and locked the Tardis before joining the rest of the festive crowd on the street.

Not far away on the street, the Doctor could hear the faint sound of music. His ears followed him to the scene of a guitarist,  
a drummer and a singer with a really high pitched voice entertaining the crowd with their cover versions of classic 20th century songs. They were also selling CDs for five pounds a pop, so the Doctor took one, hoping his old CD player in the Tardis would play this. The music was good but had that different twist that the other impressionists on the street that night didn't have. The Doctor felt right at home with this. He was a different twist to Edinburgh too.

After the performance, the Doctor managed to find a late opening cafe that filled his flask full of tea for a small price. It seemed this little place took pity on travellers, and stayed open late just for the festival, He thanked the old woman behind the counter, left the small cafe, and made his way to bed in the Tardis. Not that he ever slept very much these days.

* * *

In the morning when Rory woke, her mum was sitting on the floor, staring at her. She was also holding two cups of steaming,  
hot coffee.

" I couldn't wait. I was desperate. I'm sorry."

" You need to control your addictions. But, thank you very much. Ahhm coffee."

" I feel so much better now. So... What do you want to do today? We could go to that big castle up on the hill, Or we could go on one of those sightseeing buses."

" I think we should just mill around and check out what the festival has to offer. It's Sunday. I saw a notice downstairs that there?  
an event that happens down on the meadows, a park not far from here. It's like a market mixed with a smaller festival. I think that could be good. Plus, breakfast could be a good option. I'm sure there'll be lots of food options there."

" I don't think anything here could beat Luke's, but we can try."

" Fine. But I feel like just eating something, I'm starved."

" And we can pick up our tickets on the way. It says on our confirmation sheet thingy that the ticket office is on Princes Street. I think that's the really long one beside the train station."

" You're awfully alert today mum."

" Coffee." answered Lorelai, as if Coffee were the answer to everything.

* * *

Lorelai and Rory headed out into Edinburgh, leaving their luggage in lockers in the nearby bus station. Rory had told her mother that although the hostel might be a safe enough place, she'd rather know that they were safe for certain, hence the lockers.

A mile away up the hill towards the castle, the Doctor had a knock on the door. Apparently there was a problem with his box. Since there was an exact replica just down the hill selling coffee, tourists had started to believe that he was selling beverages also. The Doctor made a sign, 'Closed for the Festival', on his door, before locking it and leaving it for the day, keen to see what entertainment he could find for himself in the daytime.

Lorelai and Rory found themselves inside the comedy tent most of the afternoon. Not all of it was good, but it had begun to rain and they had fairly good seats. They had also managed to find a good coffee bar just before they'd found this large patch of green and had gotten large cups of coffee for not very much. It was enough to last them through an hour and a half of comedy. Next was the theatre tent, where companies came and performed the first act of their plays.

There was also a music tent, which was at that moment occupying the Doctor. He couldn't remember music being this awful. None of the bands of the past hour or so were any good. He decided to try out the kids tent. He always loved a bit of clowning around. But after spying the tent full of screaming children, he headed instead to go and get something to eat.

At that moment, when the doctor decided to find food, he bumped into some women coming in the other direction. Rory and Lorelai had got bored of the non existant talent in the theatre tent. They had been discussing how bad everything was and how Bill Bailey had better live up to their expectations.

" Oh, I'm so sorry." The Doctor apologised.

" It's nothing. We weren't really looking where we were going."

" Right, well, sorry again. " He lifted his hat to them and went on his way. He really should look where he was going these days.

" Well, that's at least one nice man here so far." Lorelai commented, watching the Doctor walk away. " And he was kind of cute too."

" Sure thing, mum, let's just find some lunch before the next tent lures us in."

" Fine. I need to refill my cup as well."

* * *

That evening, Rory and Lorelai dressed up prettily, although cosily, as they knew it would be a cold walk to the theatre performance tent.  
Both wore boots to keep out the rain as their trainers had soaked through from walking around the field all day. On the way to the theatre, they spotted the blue box where they had found their last cup of coffee. It looked like there had been a sign on the door, but only half of it was still visible, the paper that is, not the words.

The Doctor had left only moments before, in a rush. He had found that in the rush of it all, he'd forgotten to get tickets. Forgetting instantly about his magic identity papers, he ran out the door heading towards the tent at the bottom of Princes street. If he rushed, he's be there in time before it closed and get back in time to get changed...

Rory knocked lightly on the door, and it opened slightly for her. She stepped inside, followed instantly by her mother.

" Hello? Oh... oh my god." Rory commented, shocked at the sheer size of the inside of the box. There were lights all around, and when Rory's eyes came to focus, she walked up the gang plank and studied the buttons.

Half way down the steep hill of Colburn street, the Doctor remembered his magic paper. He hit himself on the head, turned around, and began to march back up the slope.

Lorelai closed the door behind her and Rory, realising that this was someone's property. She was a little shaken up as well. This room wasn't possible. Not at all. It was impossible.

" This is impossible, right, Rory? You're the smart one." Lorelai asked her daughter.

" Well... I don't know. If I was into a lot of physics, I might know at least part of the answer. No human has ever built something like this, other wise the entire world would know about it."

" So it is impossible?"

" Yup."

The Doctor approached the door and opened it, only to find his ship was already occupied. And with the young women from this afternoon no less.

" Er, hello." The Doctor said calmly.

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Please Review!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks again to my one reviewer. I've finally seen season 4 of Gilmore Girls now, there are so many 'I can't believe she did that' s on my part! Wow. But now that I know what Rory and Lorelai discussed while back in Star? Hollow. So this story is based after they arrived in London and instead of their trip to Ireland to spot Bono. It will become clearer in this chapter. Please read and review!

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**Chapter Three**

" Er, hello." The Doctor said calmly. The Doctor studied to two women standing inside the Tardis. Both were brunettes and looked alike. Both dressed for the cold and the wet of Scotland, and had rosy cheeks. He recognised them, but he didn't know why.

" This is your place?" Rory asked him.

" Yes. Home sweet home. Can I ask what you're doing in here?"

" Exploring your spaceship of course." Lorelai said sarcastically.

" I wouldn't call it a space ship."

" Well, what do you call it?" Rory asked him.

" It's called the Tardis." He replied.

" Funny word!" Lorelai commented.

" It's home."

" Yes, I believe you said that already." Rory told him. The Doctor was a smartly dressed man, wearing an old fashioned suit with converse. Rory respected him on his choice of shoes immediately.

" You were the ones who bumped into me earlier, right?"

" On the meadows, yes. Accidentally, of course." Rory replied.

" Of course. And now you're here. What a coincidence." The Doctor was surprised.

" It's fate actually. So are you an alien?" Lorelai came out with.

" Of sorts. Although I take human form and have done for many years now. I speak all sorts of dialects too. The Tardis helps me with that though. It translates all alien languages once you've been in here. For example, you could now understand an Ood talking. It's incredible!" He was now very excited at all the possibilities.

" Yes, yes, sure. We're definitely going to run into an Ood or whatever that is you said, one of these days. Entirely possible." Rory said in wonder. This was not possible, she was thinking, not at all. Really.

" Do you want to take a trip?" The Doctor proposed.

Rory panicked. " We only came in here for coffee. We were on our way to see Bill Bailey. We're only simple humans, nothing to trifle with. Please don't eat us or kidnap us." She pleaded.

" I don't eat humans," The Doctor said seriously. " All I'm asking is if you want to see the universe. A simple choice really."

" Are you sure? You want to take us to some alien planet for run? You don't even know us!" Lorelai spun at him.

" I know. But how would you ever make friends if you didn't talk to strangers once in a while?"

" I like you're reasoning. I'm Lorelai, and this is my daughter, Rory."

" Pleased to meet you, I'm the Doctor."

" Doctor who?"

" Just the Doctor. My own name is far too long and complicated, so I just go by the Doctor."

" Sure thing, Mr Doctor." Lorelai charmed him. " It get's confusing for us too. What with us both being called the same name." She motioned to herself and Rory. " Except this one has one hell of a good nickname."

" Just call me Doctor, just like John or Roy."

" Roy's a weird name." Rory thought out loud.

Lorelai called over to her, " Remember that you dated a boy called Jess."

" I always thought that was a girl's name, you know, short for Jessica." The Doctor commented.

" Me too. Time's change." Lorelai told him. " Now, if you'll wait just a moment while I talk with my daughter, we'll come up with an answer for your proposal."

" Fine. Take all the time you need." The Doctor amused himself while he waited by considering the two young women as new companions from afar while playing around with the buttons and strange knobs on the control panels. He remembered then that Rory was also a boy's name in Europe.

Over by the door, Rory and Lorelai were rapidly discussing the pros and cons of a trip like this.

" Nobody would ever believe us." Rory told her mother.

" We'll just tell people that we tried to call upon Bono or something. I've heard he owns a hotel in Ireland."

" Why didn't you tell me that before? We could've gone there first!"

" It's only a suggestion to say that we were there instead of here."

" Oh my god, did I raise you to lie? I can't believe you're telling me to lie to the people we love."

" It's a white lie. They would never believe us. And most likely put us into a psych ward. I don't see why not. They would totally believe the Bono thing though. I am open to this being possible, I want to be proved wrong. I'm not a total physics whizz but this can't be possible."

" Then where did people get the ideas for Back to the Future and the Time Machine?" Lorelai told her.

" Good point. Shall we go and have fun, but make sure that we're delivered back here like we've never left?"

" Nobody knows where we are at the moment, we aren't due back for a while yet. As long as we get back in time for our flight, I don't mind not seeing the rest of the UK."

" I do! I still want to see so much."

" Fine. We want to be back so we can still have time to explore these five countries."

" So those are our rules? We haven't entertained the possibility yet of not going." Lorelai told Rory.

" I think it would be cool. Imagine the places we could go. We could go to alien planets, but we could also go to the past and the future on this dear old planet of ours."

" I thought you said that this wasn't possible, missy."

" And I told you I wanted to be proved wrong."

The Doctor came over and interruped the women here. " I didn't mean to but in, as you say, but I would just love to prove you wrong, Rory, if you'd let me."

" Go on ahead. Our only consideration for this trip is to be back in time to explore the rest of the UK before our flight back to Boston in two weeks. We still have a lot of the UK to see. We've only seen London, Edinburgh and the very dull trip on the train from London to Edinburgh."

" Fine. Oh, and even though it was dull, be thankful you didn't fly, even more dull, but quick and you see nothing at all."

" So you'll let us get back in time for all that?"

" Of course. Hopefully. I can't always control this machine exactly, but I will try and get you back here in plenty of time."

" Thank you. Now, where would this trip be exactly? Where could you take us?"

" Everywhere and anywhere. I usually offer first time time-travellers a trip to the past and a trip to the future. Oh and we'll add some aliens in here and there too. Anywhere you'd like to go? Off the top of your heads?" He asked them.

" That would take a lot of thought, Doctor," Rory told him. " I'm sure anything and everything is extremely interesting. What do you think, mum?"

" How about we see where this machine might take us?" Lorelai told them-

" Okay. Well, if you'd like to hang up your winter coats in the cloakroom, out back," He pointed. " Wait a minute, where is the rest of your things? We could pick them up before we leave so you have it all with you in case I don't get you back exactly on time."

" In the nearby hostel. Should we go and get them now?" Rory asked him, fearing the cold outside.

" The Tardis can do a little manouvre to right outside the hostel if you like. You would have that big hill to come back up with all your things."

" Thanks." Rory answered him.

The Tardis did exactly that, and with a bit of button pushing and a shudder, the girls managed to walk out the door of the Tardis and into the hostel.  
The paid up for their stay and took their things back to the Tardis. The woman at the desk wished them a pleasant journey. She would had been extremely jealous if she had known where they were really going.

Once all their belongings were on board, and their coats in the cloakroom, the Doctor made them drinks and told them to sit back, hold on, and enjoy the ride to their first destination. He was about to pull a lever on the fourth control board when he noticed a flashing light on the second.

" Ah," he muttered, unworriedly.

" Is that a bad ah or a good ah?"

" Neither. It just means that I need to refuel. This baby of mine took a bit of a beating on it's last trip." He told them.

" What did you do?"

" We dragged the earth from one alternate universe back to this one."

" Okay." Rory accepted his answer, now welcome to any other strange answers. " Where do we have to refuel?"

" Cardiff. In Wales. We could pop in and see a few friends of mine at the same time at Torchwood, their place of business."

" Cardiff. Cool. So your friends, alien or otherwise?" Lorelai asked him.

" One is alien, the rest are pretty normal. One used to be my travelling companion actually, that is until she joined forces with Captain Jack. That's his name, by the way."

" So, one trip to Cardiff then one trip to the past and one to the future."

" Yes. Although those might be in any old order."

" Sounds fun anyway. I love the mystery of it." Lorelai said.

" The Famous Five go on an adventure again." Rory said.

" You read those books as well?" The Doctor asked.

" Best kids books for definite."

" Well, let's go then. Although we're not the Famous Five. We're the Terrible Trio." Lorelai made up.

" That makes us sound awful though. We need to come up with something better and more, well, cool." The Doctor said.

" It's a working title. It'll be better eventually!"

" Sure thing, mum."

The Doctor pulled a lever and all of a sudden they were twisted and pulled in odd directions, and landed five minutes later with a bump. Rory unclenched her hand from the bar she had been so tightly gripping. Her drink was all over the floor although it vanished through the holes within seconds. Lorelai picked herself from up off the floor and stood unsteadly. The Doctor grinned at both of them. He strolled to the door and opened it wide. Bright sunshine beamed in and he looked up at the buildings that surrounded the Tardis.

The Doctor led the two women outside and said, " Welcome to Cardiff."

" This is Cardiff?" Rory asked him, looking at the rough water ahead of them, the men in sharp suits marching past and the car zooming past in mid air. " Are you sure?"

" I didn't say it was still 2003." He told them brightly. The two Gilmore Girls looked around them with shock.

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	4. Pitstop

A/N: Thank you to my two reviewers ~ Harlequin Shadow and Qwerty!

Enjoy!

Chapter Four

The Doctor pulled a lever and all of a sudden they were twisted and pulled in odd directions, and landed five minutes later with a bump. Rory unclenched her hand from the bar she had been so tightly gripping. Her drink was all over the floor although it vanished through the holes within seconds. Lorelai picked herself from up off the floor and stood unsteadly. The Doctor grinned at both of them. He strolled to the door and opened it wide. Bright sunshine beamed in and he looked up at the buildings that surrounded the Tardis.

The Doctor led the two women outside and said, " Welcome to Cardiff."

" This is Cardiff?" Rory asked him, looking at the rough water ahead of them, the men in extra sharp suits marching past and the car zooming past in mid air. " Are you sure?"

" I didn't say it was still 2003." He told them brightly. The two Gilmore Girls looked around them with shock.

" What year is it?"

The Doctor strolled over to a street vendor and paid for a newspaper. He read the date and walked back to them holding it out to Rory.

" You're kidding me? 2084? That is so cool. Okay, you have officially proved me wrong." Rory was amazed. She had thought it wasn't possible, and she had been shown it was. The first person that jumped into her head was Jess. He would have loved this. She thought he would adapt easily to time travelling, just as she was about to. People with extensive imaginations should be able to anyway, no problems. Too bad he'd left without a trace. Too bad they didn't talk at all anymore. Just too bad. She also wondered if someone had written a futuristic book like 1984 but for this very year.

" Well, my group of friends minus Captain Jack will all be gone by now. Unless they're all over a hundred years old and still working in the same place."

" Why minus your friend Captain Jack?" Lorelai asked him.

" Ah, I told you he was an alien, right?" He asked them, and after receiving nods from both he continued, " Well, Jack doesn't age. He's not able to. Even if he had wanted to."

" That's kind of sad. What if he had fallen in love?"

" He has, many times over. But he was never able to stay with them for very long. I can't age either."

" That's really very sad then. Have you ever fallen in love?"

" I have. Right, no more depressing conversation. Let's explore!" He told them, locking the Tardis behind them and strolling ahead, knowing exactly where he was going. He had known where that conversation had been going. If it had gone any further, he would have thought of Rose and his double who would undoubtably be in an alernate universe right now and may not be still alive. He didn't want to even think about it. He loved her, but couldn't have her. The ultimate Romeo and Juliet, alien style.

The Doctor took them further towards the harbour and towards where the entrance to the Torchwood vault was eighty odd years before. Things really had changed, but the entrance probably would not have. It was a secret entrance, nobody had known about it and probably still didn't. Flying cars may be all the rage now but he didn't think the contact with alien life had really happened fully as yet.

" I know we're refueling here, but will this be our only trip into the future?" Rory asked him.

" Not if you don't want it to be. We could travel for years and still get you back in 2003 on time."

" That is very cool." Lorelai told him. Scary too, she thought. It would be very strange to go back to the same time after years of travelling, being seen again by Sookie and Luke as only having been away for a month or so, whereas they would have really been away for years. She realised that as much as she would love to travel back and forth like this for years, she would miss those two too much. Even if she did have Rory with her. At least that was a big plus.

Years were a long time to Rory too. Imagine going two years without seeing Lane or Sookie or Luke or Grandma and Grandpa or Star's Hollow as a whole. And she would love to see Jess again, just to ask if that had really been him on the phone at graduation and also to ask why he left so suddenly. She just wanted to know. She and her mum had kind of skipped over the whole subject of Jess. Her mother never liked him, so she couldn't say any positive things about him. She didn't know why she was thinking about him so suddenly today. She had had so much to distract her in the past month or so just by exploring Europe. Maybe it was because her mother had mentioned him earlier by having a girls name. Earlier. Wow, that was mentioned something that was said eighty-one years ago in the past. Quite a long time ago!

" Right," The Doctor was saying, " The entrance was just around here. You would stand in a specific place and just disappear into the hidden vault below us. Now where was it... Right, I have an idea, wander around and if one of us suddenly disappears, we'll know where the entrance is. Just watch out where everyone else is as you go."

" Great idea," Rory thought. " If I suddenly go missing and nobody sees me, then I'm gone forever." She said this and suddenly her world went black.

Lorelai turned around to see that her daughter had indeed disappeared. She screamed for the Doctor and together they scanned the area where she had last been for the hidden entrance.

It wasn't an intense sort of black. Not the never ending black. She was definitely still awake and floating down an invisible lift towards a light at the bottom. The door pinged and swung open at the bottom to show an open room, with a stairway going up one side and a set of computers at the other. She stepped forward into the room, and as her foot touched the floor, the lights came on as bright as ever and an alarm sounded loudly. Rory covered her ears and watched as three men stepped towards her with guns of a kind she'd never seen before.

" I'm unarmed!" She screamed at them through the alarm. " And I'm with the Doctor!" She thought this might help, one of these men must be the Captain Jack that the Doctor had mentioned only minutes before.

And as if that were some sort of charm, one of the men clicked his fingers, and the alarm stopped. One of them stepped towards her, still armed.

" If you know the Doctor, where is he?"

Rory decided that to not answer him would not be an advantage to her. " He's up on the ground, up there somewhere, most likely trying to discover where I disappeared to."

Suddenly, the alarms sounded again as a second lift to her right opened and out stepped the Doctor and a very worried looking Lorelai. She spotted her daughter and smiled.

" Hey there sweetie." Her mum said, before looking at the men with the guns and started to look worried again.

The Doctor headed towards the three men, shook the hand of one of them, and they put their guns away. They apologised to the Doctor and the women for the guns, they were only a precaution as they hadn't had unexpected visitors in many years.

" Security must be tight then." Lorelai quipped, seeing as there were only three of them and not an entire military unit down here.

" It is, very tight. And you are..." The man who had shook the Doctors hand asked her.

" Lorelai Gilmore, from 2003, at your service." She thought that she might just pop that bit of information in, as if it mattered.

" Well, thank you Lorelai. My name is Captain Jack, from many different years. I can't really remember all of them." Jack was extremely handsome, with a charming, winning smile. He definitely won her over at once. Pity he was an alien and didn't age. He turned towards Rory, and asked her the same question.

" Rory Gilmore, of the same year."

" Doctor, you've picked yourself up a team of sisters. Very nice." Lorelai and Rory looked at him and chuckled.

" Did I say something wrong?" He asked.

" No, nothing at all." Rory told him. " Except that Lorelai is my mother."

" You are kidding me. There is no way you two are... unless..."

" And he's got it." Lorelai told Rory.

" Undoubtably. Now, we've introduced ourselves, are these two your bodyguards or something?" Rory asked Jack.

" Nope. This is Kwan and this is Jacob. They work here with me. Computer technicians. And very advanced at that." Jack boasted.

" I would expect so, seeing as I haven't a computer or the internet in over eighty years supposedly." Rory told him.

" You'll get used to that time jump. It takes a while, but you'll catch up fine."

" I hope so."

" So, catch me up on what you've been doing since I last saw you." The Doctor asked.

" I saw you only a couple of years ago, but you might not have reached that yet. Jumping over time does that to you, " he told Lorelai, who was looking confused.

" Still, bring me up to speed."

" It's been a bit dull without the Dalek's to lighten things up, but we're had our fair share of bad guys and we've saved the planet almost every week. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it."

" And that's you?" Rory asked Jack.

" That's us, that is, when the Doctor's not around. He's very good at finding trouble and clearing it up. That'll make your trip to Cardiff exciting at the very least, won't it"  
Kwan answered for him.

" I'm sure it will." Rory replied.

" Do you want to see our array of eclectic beings down in our zoo?" Jacob asked her. He was young, not much older than her and seemed to be taking a definite shine to her. He was kind of cute too, she thought, in that modern futuristic kind of way that was starting to appeal to her.

" Do you two also want the guided tour?" Jack asked the Doctor and Lorelai. Lorelai said she's see it another time and let Rory have some alone time with someone her own age. Not one hour in a new place and her mum was trying to set her up with some bloke. Bloke, she liked that word, very British. Goes with bloody and skint too.

" Eh, okay." Rory told him.

Rory was led down two sets of stairs where Jacob unlocked a thick metal door with an old looking key. In the first room she was led into there were masks and suits and boxes of food.

" This is also our storage unit. So Rory, is this your first time in the future? You seem to be pretty okay with it."

" First time. Started only today. I think it was today anyway."

" It does get confusing. I haven't done it that much, not a lot of opportunities now. But I'm happy where I am."

" So are you from this future or another one?"

" I've travelled, but I was born in 2061, how about you?"

" 1985, I'm afraid. I think that makes me a bit older than you than I'd imagined." She joked.

" Funny." He told her as he led her down more steps. " Not long now."

" Okay," he said, having reached the bottom and was opening another door. " This is an Ood." He said pointing to a white, almost skeltal creature with a large oval head, big eyes and who was holding a red bulb in his hand. " That is his communicator. If the bulb was white, he would be good. But it's red, so he's a bit dangerous."

" So is he in a sort of prison?"

" Yes, he'll eventually be set free when he's done his time, but he'll be placed back on his own planet and won't be allowed to leave there. No chance of him returning to earth, you see."

" Okay. This is all very new to me. The Doctor has certainly proved me wrong more than once today."

" What were you wrong about?"

" Time travel being possible and aliens existing on earth." Rory told him.

" Happy with the results?"

" Yeah, it's not bad."

Meanwhile, upstairs, Lorelai was drinking some sort of futuristic liquid almost like coffee, good enough anyway, and listening to the Doctor and Captain Jack reminice about their mutual aquaintances and travelling companions of the past few years.

" Donna was very straight forward and straight talking. We had such a laugh. She was such a good person. It was a shame I had to leave her like that." He had just finished telling Lorelai about the Doctor Donna combination and all about Donna. She thought it was such a pity but hoped that Donna was okay now without the Doctor by her side.

" I saw her for only a few minutes after she changed back to what she was before, gossipy and loud." He gave them a grim smile at the memory as he remembered what her grandpa had said about her relationship with the Doctor... 'She's better with you...'

Rory had been downstairs in the dungeon like corridor with Jacob now for about ten minutes, and she had already seen many disgusting looking creatures that she never would have imagined and a few which she was sure would give her nightmares in the future. Jacob noticed Rory's look of distaste.

" Had enough?" Rory nodded, and Jacob led her through another door, where there was a lift back upstairs to the base.

" More than enough, " She finally replied as she followed him into the lift.

" You'll probably see more creatures like these on your trip with the Doctor. It all depends what year you end up in."

" Where did you go travelling?" Rory asked him.

" To the past actually, with Captain Jack. We were testing out a time machine we found. It was pretty cool. We went back about four hundred years, to the Jacobite era,  
where a man named Charles Edward Stewart needed a bit of help with the king of that time. Nothing a little alien magic couldn't help."

" That's cool. But I thought you weren't allowed to change the past, in case of changing the future."

" We didn't. Apparently that was to happen all along, the history books just changed it a little and said that a woman helped him. I don't think Captain Jack liked being compared to a woman."

" Probably not." They had reached the base again, where Rory was welcomed back with a cup of coffee. Just what she needed.

" So where's a good place to get something to eat around here?" Rory asked the men.

" Good point. We were going to have dinner after the show, but then we never made it to the show, did we?" Rory and her mother discussed this together.

" So you're hungry?" Jack asked them. " I guess we could go above ground to a cafe somewhere."

" I could totally go for blueberry pancakes without the fruit." Lorelai mused.

" Is that even possible?" The Doctor asked her.

" It is if you know where to look." Rory told him. Already her mouth was watering at the prospect of pancakes, as she was really very hungry.

Captain Jack led them to the back door, and out another elevator. Although this time it was really quite visible where they came out as their elevator stopped in a building's elevator shaft, bumping another empty elevator to move a floor up.

" Clever." Rory commented.

" So what are you in a mood for, apart from pancakes I mean?" Captain Jack asked them. " Food hasn't really changed in the past eighty years or so, there's just a lot more variations of the same things."

" We have very large appetites for women of our size, or so we've been told." Rory told him.

" How do you mean?" Kwon asked. He was a very shy guy, but he had his moments of curiousity.

" Like ordering one of everything off a menu and eating half of it." Lorelai replied shortly.

" Depends on the size of the menu too." Rory chimed in.

" How about that cafe there?" Lorelai asked. She had just spotted a sign outside that said 'Buffet'.

" All you can eat buffet? I'm totally in!" Her daughter answered. The girls headed towards the cafe, followed by the men.

After a full Welsh breakfast among other things, the girls were finally energised and had full, contented stomachs.

" I say we remember this place for when we're hungry again." Rory said. " If we have to come back to Cardiff again that is."

" Are you ready for an adventure now?" The Doctor asked the young women. " We've refueled the Tardis, our stomachs and our caffeine supply. I think it's time to go."

Captain Jack stepped forward first and shook the hands of everyone. " It was great to see you again, Doctor, and girls, it was my pleasure having you."

" Well thanks very much. If we have time, we'll try to pop back before out flight back to the states. Although you might not know us in 2003." Lorelai said, not unkindly.

Kwon and Jacob both kissed the hands of Rory and Lorelai. I guess chivalry's not dead yet, Rory thought, and smiled.

Lorelai wrote their Star's Hollow address down on a napkin from the cafe and told them that they should come and visit any time. After summer 2003 though, she told them,  
as otherwise they would still be strangers.

The Doctor, Lorelai and Rory hopped into the Tardis, and shut the door, still waving goodbyes.

" So, past or future?" He asked them, as he pulled a lever and the Tardis jumped into life. Soon, the Tardis disappeared from the Cardiff docks and to the past.

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